A Beginner's Guide to Ice Sculpture
by neuxue
Summary: Zuko and Katara make ice sculptures. Complete and utter fluff. Written for Day 15 of Zutara Month 2012: Wonderland.


"Gran-Gran says the Southern waterbenders used to make ice sculptures here," Katara says excitedly.

Zuko tries to share her enthusiasm but all he can see is a frozen wasteland of windswept ice and snow. He has learned to love the harsh, icy beauty of the Water Tribe villages, but this is just…cold. Still, it seems to make Katara happy so he shrugs and tries to see what she must be seeing.

It would help if it weren't so cold. Even breathing fire at his fingers fails to keep them warm for long.

Katara is frowning in concentration at a patch of ice in front of her that, to Zuko, looks more or less like every other patch of ice. And then Katara shifts into a bending stance and the ice begins to rise and shape itself, swirling into shape with the movement of her arms.

When she finishes, there is a giant block of ice that vaguely resembles...Zuko tilts his head and squints, but still isn't sure exactly what it's meant to be.

"So um…is that an ice sculpture?" he asks. Katara glares at him for a moment, then looks back at the lump of ice and they both start laughing, the sound strangely muffled by all the snow.

"It was supposed to be a fish," Katara says when she can speak again. "But I guess ice sculpting is its own form of waterbending."

She tries again, and this time the lump looks a bit like a tree covered in snow. Covered to the point where it's just a lump of ice.

Katara sighs. "Maybe I should just ask Toph. She figured out sand sculpting easily enough, this must be similar."

Zuko smiles at the memory of Toph's sand-castle building, and Sokka's attempts at a sculpture of Suki. He doesn't mention it to Katara, but privately he thinks that artistic talent – or lack thereof – must run in the family.

"Or maybe I could help," he says.

"How? You're not a waterbender, last time I checked."

"No," he says with the hint of a smirk, walking up to the fish-lump. "But ice melts."

He brings a tiny, focused flame to the tip of his finger, and traces it along what he thinks is meant to be the head of the fish. The ice melts at his touch, and soon he has carved out an eye, a mouth, and the beginnings of scales. He increases the flame so it covers his entire palm, and sweeps his hand along the top of the ice, shaping it into a gentle curve, like the back of a leaping fish, making sure to leave enough ice for the fin, where he uses a small flame again to draw in ridges.

By the time he has finished, the block of ice now looks just like a fish jumping up from the frozen sea, sunlight glittering off its icy scales.

"I didn't know you were so artistic, Zuko," Katara says, a hand on her hip. Her voice is mocking, but she can't hide a smile.

Zuko shrugs. "Master Piandao wouldn't let me even touch the dao blades until I could paint."

"How on earth did Sokka ever learn to use a sword, then?" Katara asks, laughing. "You saw the drawing he made of all of us!"

"Sokka is…a special case, I think," Zuko says, trying to imagine his old swordsmaster teaching someone like Sokka. He has a feeling the two would get along well. Piandao seemed to like being infuriated, and Sokka was nothing if not infuriating.

"Well fine, if you're the master ice sculptor, what should we make next?" Katara asks, turning her attention to the frozen ground once again.

"I don't know…um, a dragon?" he suggests.

Katara bends a snakelike shape out of the ice, with what could, with a bit of work, become wings. Zuko sets to work with his fire, pulling from his memories of Ran and Sha.

"Look," he says, and when Katara turns around he shoots a jet of fire from the dragon's icy jaws. She laughs and sets to work bending more rough shapes out of the ice, while he follows after her, trying to guess at what she has made, and sculpting the shape and detail.

It becomes a game of sorts, the Fire Lord chasing after the chief's daughter, squinting at blocks and blobs of ice to puzzle out the intended shapes. Ice and fire flash and flicker, flames glittering off the facets in the sculpted ice and setting the world aglow.

The sculptures range from the simple and ordinary, at the beginning, to the more intricate and absurd, as Katara's bending of the ice becomes more controlled and precise. For this Zuko is grateful – she hadn't been pleased when he made an ostrich horse out of what was meant to be Appa.

The finally stop as the sun begins to sink below the horizon, adding its own fiery tint to the landscape of sculpted ice. Zuko and Katara stand, covered in ice and snow, surrounded by fish and dragons, icy renditions of cities they've seen, sculptures of their friends and themselves, ships and sea monsters and spirits and more.

In the glow of the sunset, the two walk hand in hand through the glittering wonderland they have created with fire and ice.


End file.
